So what's it gonna take?

Are you ready to change the game...revolutionise the way we travel and are able to connect with each other?

The speed is amazing right...and the time it'll take to get places just makes the mind boggle, but there's some even more incredible about the Hyperloop vision. Dirk Ahlborn, CEO of Hyperloop Transportation Technologies says here in this WIRED Magazine Article there's a real possibility that it:

"Might be free to the passenger"

That's right, a real 'Public Transport' system...during off peak times, if thought about, funded and built in the right way; we could have a point-to-point, lightning-fast transportation network that would be free to use!

So how do we get this I hear you cry?

By entering the Global Challenge, getting shortlisted to one of the 12 finalists and, having worked up our plan with their engineers, winning one of the 3 places up for grabs to be the first places in the world to get hyperloops.

Hyperloop One Global Challenge

Ideally, your entry will integrate many stakeholders above and provide a comprehensive and compelling rationale for bringing Hyperloop to your location.

1. Tell us who you are and why you are submitting an entry. Of note, this is not an engineering contest.

We encourage submissions from engineering firms, but from a corridor and transformation perspective, not a Hyperloop system design perspective.

Corridor

We are not only looking for transport corridors with lots of existing traffic. We want to identify corridors with the vision and drive to use Hyperloop to create new travel opportunities via a coordinated program of economic development and spatial development with Hyperloop as the enabling core strategic infrastructure.

2. Please provide a description of your corridor.

3. List major traffic generators on or near the corridor, including but not limited to the following:

6. Identify any existing Right-of-Way (ROWs), whether for transportation or utilities, as well as any known topographical or geological challenges along the corridor.

7. Provide a map of the proposed Hyperloop network

Strategic Transformation

We want you to think big here. We are looking for creativity regarding how Hyperloop could fundamentally change your corridor and region. We’ll give you a couple thought-provoking ideas, but this is not an exhaustive list. YOU tell us what’s important to unleash the strategic potential of Hyperloop on YOUR corridor.

8. Please respond to the following questions:

a. What happens when hours become minutes? Will you travel more or make different kinds of journeys?

b. What happens when Hyperloop makes trips to remote cities shorter than trips to the suburbs by traditional modes?

c. What happens when you can capture the value of new development to contribute to the capital cost of a Hyperloop network?

d. What happens when prime waterfront land currently covered by ports is liberated by a Hyperloop container-shifter link to an inland container distribution hub?

e. How do your supply chains in the vicinity of your corridor evolve and benefit from Hyperloop?

f. What happens when just-in-time deliveries can be made within minutes along your corridor?

g. What happens when two or more major airports are linked via Hyperloop, essentially creating a single multi-runway super-hub and optimizing capacity?

Feel free to use maps, graphic illustrations, architectural visualizations, and animations to convey this transformation. Provide links to any digital content.

Passenger & Cargo Flows

To facilitate crafting the economic case for Hyperloop on your corridor, please provide population and economic output statistics along your corridor as well as details regarding passenger and cargo flows on your corridor. Since all corridors are unique, feel free to provide us with any additional information you feel is relevant.

Please supplement responses to questions below by filling out the downloadable spreadsheet with volumes, current pricing, trip durations along each O&D pair.

9. What are historical, current, and projected population and economic output stats along your corridor?

10. Passenger Demand

a. Current Volumes

i. How many people currently travel between each of the O&D pairs along the corridor annually? Please state flows as a bi-directional annual total (i.e. total traffic in both directions).

ii. What modes of transport do passengers currently use to make these journeys, and what is the mode split?

iii. Are there seasonal differences in demand?

iv. Why are they making these journeys? What is the split between business, commuting, and leisure?

v. What is the total airport passengers per year by arriving, departing, and transit. Of arriving and departing passengers, how many destine or originate from points along your corridor?

b. Current Pricing

i. What is the respective pricing for each mode? ! For car transport, please include expenses such as fuel, parking, tolls, as well as car ownership expenses (insurance, servicing, taxes, depreciation, and finance charges) on a per average passenger basis for a round trip (Include average car loading number persons per car)

ii. Are any modes benefiting from any subsidies or other tax advantages?

c. Trip Duration

i. How long does each mode take? Include estimates of average access, boarding, and egress times.

d. Future Demand

i. Are there plans for real estate development, industrial or commercial development, and/or population growth along this corridor?

ii. Any other considerations that may affect future demand?

11. Cargo Demand

a. Current Volumes

i. What are current cargo volumes by mode, type of good, packaging method (pallet, container, aircraft ULD, etc.) for each O&D pair annually? Please state flows as a bi-directional annual total and provide the trade balance.

ii. Are there seasonal variations or daily peaks in demand, and if so, what is the variation?

iii. How many daily truck movements on the corridor are required to move containers and airfreight ULDs to and from the ports and airports?

iv. What are top 10 destinations for trucks and rail leaving ports and airports? What are the volumes?

b. Current Pricing

i. What is the respective pricing for each mode today?

ii. Are any modes benefiting from subsidies or other tax advantages?

c. Trip Duration and Process

i. How long does each more take? Include estimates of handling times as well as transport times.

ii. What supply chain practices must be adapted to for seamless integration? Entry Requirements Hyperloop One Global Challenge 5

d. What stakeholders are influential along the value chain, and what bottlenecks impact those stakeholders?

e. Future Demand

i. Are there plans for industrial or commercial development, new distribution hubs, and/or population growth along this corridor?

ii. Any other considerations that may affect future demand?

iii. At a strategic level, discuss how these freight flows could be made for efficient if a Hyperloop system capable of moving packages, pallets, containers, airfreight ULDs, and courier/postal consignments is available?

Government & Policy

Understanding the methods of funding, permitting, and regulating infrastructure projects in your region will help us refine our analysis and understand your priorities.

12. How does the State normally invest in infrastructure projects in your region?

Direct funding of 100% of the capital cost by the State, with 100% of the operational cost of the project borne by a State enterprise.

Direct funding of 100% of the capital cost by the State, with the operation of the project franchised to private enterprise.

Public Private Partnership for the project (e.g. Availability Payment models). If known, please state which aspects of DBFOM – Design, Build, Finance, Operate & Maintain – are carried out by the private sector. This varies in PPP, sometimes it is only O&M that is outsourced, in other cases the entire DBFOM package is competitively tendered.

By creating long-term monopoly concessions to enable the private sector to bear the entire risk of a project (typical in toll roads, for example)

14. What risk mitigations or guarantees does your Government typically offer to private sector investors in major infrastructure projects?

15. What transport appraisal model is used by Government or its Agencies in your region when assessing transport investment proposals? Please provide a link to the transport agency detailing the model.

16. How effective would this model be in capturing the radical impacts on time, spatial geography, and macro-economics due to Hyperloop?

As an example, the UK Government’s Transport Analysis Guidance (WebTAG) enforces a ‘fixed land use’ assumption.

That is to say, the model takes no account of the relocation of employment or residents that will occur when a genuinely transformational transport scheme is constructed, which will cause entirely new patterns of economic activity to emerge and entirely new residential developments to occur on a very large scale.

WebTAG would thus massively undervalue the Wider Economic Benefit of a major new strategic transport investment such as Hyperloop. Without an upgrade to the model, it simply could not measure transformational impact of a major infrastructure investment which fundamentally alters the places people live and work.

17. What Value of Time is typically employed by government in your region?

18. What do you consider the top 3 socioeconomic benefits from constructing a Hyperloop? How do you place value on these benefits?

c. What lobby groups actively represent current modes of transport in your region?

22. Which regulatory bodies are responsible for current modes of transport in your region? a. Are there innovation or research branches of your regulatory bodies that are typically the first touch point for new technologies? Please provide a brief commentary.

Acceleration Plan

Bringing your great ideas to life will require hard work not only by Hyperloop One but also by communities around the world. We want to know how you propose to coordinate, streamline, and accelerate all the processes required for new infrastructure development. We also want to know about investment entities interested in projects as well as specialist expertise within your group that would like to contribute to further study/development on your corridor.

23. Please explain how you would:

a. Accelerate the necessary Government legislation to permit Hyperloop to be constructed on your corridor

24. Do you envision opportunities to partner with another region(s), and if so, what is the purpose of this collaboration?

a. What is the envisioned structure of partnership?

b. If your corridor crosses jurisdictions, what regulatory body is responsible for oversight and what types of approvals would be needed for this project to succeed? Who would be responsible for build, operate, maintain in this scenario?

25. Are there potential investors in your project group? If so, please provide details such as nature of entity, investment focus (utilities, infrastructure, innovation, property and real estate), typical quantum of investment, links to last published report and accounts for public corporations or financial information for private entities, and a list of recent investments most relevant to the proposed Hyperloop project.

26. Please identify any expertise that you would like to contribute to further study and provide contact information: